


No One Remembers Gary

by okemmelie



Category: Black Friday - Team StarKid
Genre: Gen, please enjoy anyway, uhhh this is one of the dumber thing i've ever written
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:21:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21970582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okemmelie/pseuds/okemmelie
Summary: The very successful Gary Goldstein, attorney at law, finally returns to his hometown of Hatchetfield. It’s not at all like he hoped it would be.
Comments: 34
Kudos: 45





	1. Gerald

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by that very iconic phone conversation between gary and gerald, but somehow a five part miniseries. anyway, gary goldstein is my favorite character, i love him and i hope he has a good life

Back in the good old days when Gary went to Sycamore High and wasn’t a hot-shot lawyer only now returning to his hometown after working away for a few years, he used to sit next to a certain Gerald Monroe every single day. Gerald had always laughed a little when Gary had said he was going to be a lawyer, but now here he was: An attorney at law. A successful story in this town of noones. And he was going to tell Gerald.

Sure, the boys had been best friends back in high school, but they hadn’t stayed in contact. They’d both lived busy lives. It was what happened. He had, however, heard that Gerald had moved back in with his mother while he looked for a place to live and that meant Gary could surprise him with a visit.

He knocks on the door. Gerald’s mom, Felicia, opens. “Hi, Mrs. Monroe.” He offers her a big smile. “Is Gerald home by any chance?”

She smiles, then blinks a few times. “Who’s asking?”

“Gary.”

“Gary who?”

“Gary Goldstein.”

“Oh! Right!” She didn’t look to remember who he was at all, but maybe she just didn’t want to hurt his feelings. It was fine. Not everyone was destined to remember him instantly. “I’ll go get him immediately.”

He stands around outside, waiting for a good while. He’d met Felicia before. He used to come here. Not a lot, but he’d stop by. And he is stopping by now.

He is still deep in his thoughts when he hears the familiar voice of Gerald Monroe: “G-dog!” Gary only has time to raise an eyebrow in confusion before he is embraced in a very unfamiliar hug. “What’s up, my dude?”

Gerald never calls him G-dog. Gerald doesn’t remember him.


	2. Tom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sometimes, we gotta make choices and this, for me, was a choice

Gary Goldstein is a very important man. He is an attorney at law, after all, so he has places to be and people to meet. Yes, Gary is important, but he’s also caffinated and gay, and that’s just a whole recipie for walking fast.

He walks so fast, indeed, that he doesn’t realize there’s a small hole in the pavement. Fast-walking, busy attorneys don’t have time to look for holes. They also don’t have time to fall, but Gary falls anyway.

“Ow!” He can’t help it but to verbally let it be known that he is in pain, as he is, in fact, in pain. In a lot of pain, that is.

Luckily, someone comes to his aid. “Hey, are you alright?” A man asks. The man has a familiar voice, a voice Gary would recognize anywhere. He looks slightly different, but he sounds exactly the same. Tom Houston.

“Yes. Or… no. My foot hurts a lot.” Tom Houston extends his hand to help Gary up. Gary happily takes it. “Thank you, Tom.”

Tom raises his eyebrow. “How do you know my name?”

Gary thought for sure Tom couldn’t be serious. “We went to the same kindergarten. We were friends. You used to dare me to eat sand, remember?”

“Oh. Right. Gerald, right?”

Oh no. Tom was serious. “Gary. Gary Goldstein.”

At least his name seems to spark some sort of familiarity in Tom’s eyes. Sure, it’s not what he wanted, but it’s better than nothing. It’s better than G-dog. It’s good enough. “Right, right, right. I’m sorry, man, remembering names and… and faces, it’s never really been my thing.”

Tom apologized so Gary forgives him immediately. Not everyone is destined to remember him, he reminds himself. Then he says goodbye to Tom and attempts power walking away through the pain.


	3. Becky

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i love one man and he is attorney at law. he hopes you have your finances in order or you better get ready for audits!

Despite his misfortunes, Gary Goldstein  _ is  _ an attorney at law and a very serious one. He isn’t going to let something like an ankle that feels like it’s attempting to murder him every time he takes a step hold him back from doing his job right. And he isn’t an idiot. He’s very smart, in fact. Smart enough to know it’s time to get it checked out.

So he’s getting it checked out and he’s sitting there, waiting. Waiting isn’t a lot of fun, but he reminds himself that he has to do this in order to feel better sooner. Just thinking that to himself makes the waiting feel a little less dreadful.

“Gary Goldstein.” It’s the man who noted down his arrival who’s now calling out his name, so he gets up and goes over to him. He points down a long corridor. “Seventh door on the left.”

After quickly thanking him, Gary starts making his way down the corridor and he eventually finds it. The seventh door on the left has a name on it. And not just any name. It’s a name he recognizes: Becky Barnes. He knocks.

Could it be the very same Becky Barnes who his actual childhood best friend who totally remembered his name always no question, Linda, had always talked about? The girl Linda had spent her childhood crushing on, only to be crushed by the realization that she was straight when she made out with  _ him _ and not  _ her  _ at a party when they were fifteen?

His question was answered moments later, when the very Becky Barnes that he’d heard so much about and equally forgotten so much about opens the door.

“Hi, come in.” He does as she says and he’s soon sat in a chair in her little room in the hospital. “What’s your name again, sir?”

“Gary Goldstein.”

“Double G, I like it. My name’s–

He cuts her off. “Becky Barnes, two B’s. We know each other. From high school.” While it isn’t the exact truth, it’s close enough.

She blinks a few times. “Oh? I’m sorry, I don’t remember you.”

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to him and maybe it doesn’t. It still sucks, but at least she helps him figure out his ankle problem, so he supposes he can forgive it.


	4. Sherman

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> rip gary goldstein

Sometimes when you’re a very busy and very successful attorney at law, you have to make sure you’re also putting time aside for the things that really matter in life. Like spending time with your family. And Gary is a very smart man, so he’s said yes to go to his much younger cousin’s birthday party. That’s family, for sure!

But in order for Gary to really go to his cousin’s birthday party, he needs to bring her a gift. Well, not need to, but he wants to. Because he is a good cousin with a good job.

He goes to the Lakeside Mall. He’s come here so many times in the past, but this is his first time returning since moving back to Hatchetfield. So much has changed since he was last here, but at the same time everything seems to be pretty much the same. Sure, the shops were different and so were the items in them, but the mall still felt exactly the same as it had all those years ago, back when he wasn’t a successful lawyer.

One thing that has not changed, as far as Gary’s been able to gather from the internet, is the existence of one certain toy store. Toy Zone. Sure, they’ve expanded it to also be on the ground floor and whatever, but it’s still there. In the mall. It’s still home.

He goes in and grabs the first thing that looks like what a nine year old would enjoy getting from her distant, yet cool, uncle. It’s Frozen merch and it’s perfect, because he knows what Frozen is and that means that so much she.

He gets in line and there’s a far too big line for his busy lifestyle, but it’s fine. He can wait. Or at least he thinks he can, but then he hears a familiar voice from behind him. A voice he had hoped he’d never hear again, not since the model train incident. “Gary Goldstein? I didn’t think I’d see you back here again.”

There’s no reason for him to turn around, but he does anyway. And for sure, there he is. Sherman Young, the man who had once yelled at him in Toy Zone for buying the last box of model trains when Gary was still a little kid.

Sure. Sometimes, Gary wished more people would remember him. Right now, Gary wishes nothing but to be forgotten.


	5. Emma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i love one (1) lawyer. his name is gary goldstein and he deserves the world

It’s been exactly a month since Gary returned to Hatchetfield and being back is certainly strange, he concludes on his way to work that morning.

There’s been ups and there’s been downs, but most of his downs have been his own fault, so maybe he just needs to work on some things on his own. Like the whole issue with not being recognized. It’s not as big of an issue as he’s making it out to be. It probably just means he’s grown as a person.

Yes! That must be it. He’s much older, much more mature and he probably also looks a lot better now, so maybe they just can’t recognize him. He used to be a pretty awkward kid, after all, and now he’s a successful attorney. All their small town brains just can’t follow. It has to be that.

Even though he’s able to explain it, he also tells himself it doesn’t matter. He’s fine. Some people recognize him and that’s enough.

“Hey. Gary, right?” A familiar voice says. Tom.

Gary nods. “Exactly! Hi!” He smiles at Tom as the two pass each other on the street. It makes his day a little better. A little while later, he passes Becky and says hi to her too. She says ‘ _ Hi Gary _ ’ and then hurries off to work. It makes his day even better.

Work isn’t for another fifteen minutes, so Gary decides he has time to stop by Beanie’s on the way. Coffee is nice and Gary’s deserved it. He’s worked hard and today, he’s going to continue just that. A morning coffee it is!

_ Jingle, jingle _ . The bell rings as he enters.

“Hi, welcome to Beanie’s. What can I get you?”

He’s never been to Beanie’s before, but he has seen the barista who’s taking his order, so he greets her when. “Hi. You’re Emma Perkins!”

“And you’re… wearing a suit?”

Despite having just told himself that he’s fine not being remembered, Gary used to hang out with Jane  _ all  _ the time and he spends time telling Emma this before even ordering. He’s Gary Goldstein, goddammit, and he will be remembered!


End file.
